GOP reps regret skipped oath

In a letter to be distributed Friday night, Reps. Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick apologize to all 433 of their House colleagues for voting after missing out on taking their official oath of office during Wednesday’s opening ceremonies of the 112th Congress.

The swearing-in of members of Congress is required by Article 6 of the Constitution, and Republican leaders scrambled to come up with a fix to rectify their invalid votes.

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On Friday, the House agreed to a resolution nullifying those votes on six roll calls that occurred between that ceremony and the time at which they were sworn in a day later.

“[W]e are deeply committed to fulfilling our role in our constitutional democracy by maintaining the integrity of the People’s House. Our absence on the House floor during the oath of office ceremony for the 112th Congress — while not intentional — fell short of this standard by creating uncertainty regarding our standing in this body,” Sessions, a Texas Republican, and Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, write in a copy of the letter provided to POLITICO.

In the letter, they say they are sorry even though they didn’t realize at the time that they had erred.

“While we immediately took steps to rectify the situation, we understand that our error allowed the integrity of this great legislative body’s proceedings to be called into question,” they write. “We regret that this incident adversely affected House proceedings and apologize for any individual inconvenience our actions may have caused.”

The House resolution on Friday subtracted the Sessions and Fitzpatrick votes from the final tallies — and approving of other legislative action they took — by a vote of 257-159, with 27 Democrats joining all Republicans who voted.

Sessions and Fitzpatrick were attending a reception for the Pennsylvanian in the Capitol Visitor Center when the oath was administered. House officials became aware of the problem Thursday after the online publication of a photograph of the two members-elect raising their right hands while watching the ceremony on television Wednesday.

Both lawmakers said that they believed they had taken the oath of office at the reception — but House rules and precedents require members to be in close proximity to the House speaker when they are sworn in.